The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument, and more particularly to an electronic musical instrument which can play a plurality of preprogrammed songs, insert special sound effects, switch the preprogrammed songs being played between various voices, or operate in a play mode for playing particular musical notes
A relatively wide variety of electronic musical instruments have recently become available. These instruments, primarily designed for children, are switchable between a play mode and a preprogrammed mode In the play mode, the user can sequentially actuate any of a plurality of note keys to cause the instrument to play a melody and thereby compose his own song. In the preprogrammed mode, the user can actuate any of a plurality of song keys to cause the instrument to play a preprogrammed song.
Even in those instruments which permit a selection of the preprogrammed song simply by actuating a particular song key, typically the newly selected preprogrammed song will not be played by the instrument until after the preprogrammed song in process is finished (i.e., completed). Indeed, where the user desires to switch from the preprogrammed mode to the play mode, typically he must wait until completion of the preprogrammed song in process before he can play musical notes by striking the note keys. (Indeed, in certain instruments the change from one preprogrammed song to another or the change between preprogrammed and play modes or even between voices is not easily accomplished by merely actuating a key, but requires changing of a cartridge or insertion of a separate element, a procedure which the youthful user may find just as uninteresting, frustrating, and bothersome as allowing a preprogrammed song to play to completion.) These restrictions may cause the youthful user to lose interest in the instrument, become frustrated and possibly even misperceive the instrument as defective.
During the playing of a preprogrammed song in the preprogrammed mode, the playing of particular songs is interrupted at predetermined times in order to permit the user to add special sound effects by actuating one of a plurality of sound effect keys, the actuation of a sound effect key causing the playing of the song to be resumed after playing of the special sound effect. While such instruments have the advantage of ensuring that the sound effects are added at the appropriate time from the point of either the composer of the song or the designer of the instrument, they fail to take into account the impatient nature of a child who wants to hear (i.e., insert) the sound effect when he wants to insert the sound effect, and not when the composer/manufacturer wants to permit the sound effect to be inserted. As the instrument is not immediately responsive to the desires of the user, the user may rapidly lose interest therein. Indeed, the failure of the instrument to respond to the pressing of a sound effect key each and every time that the user strikes that key may frustrate the user and even cause him to believe that the instrument is defective.
Some of the instruments permit the user to select one of a plurality of voices in which the preprogrammed song or a musical note will be played--that is, the particular type of instrument sound or tonal quality in which the preprogrammed song or the musical note will be played. While the instrument keys permit the voice to be selected prior to initiation of the playing of the preprogrammed song, typically the instrument keys are not effective to change the voice during playing of the preprogrammed song. For the reasons stated above with regard to the sound effect keys, this may result in loss of interest, frustration, and even perceived malfunction of the instrument.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic musical instrument which, in the preprogrammed mode, responds to the actuation of any of its keys with an immediate audible response.
Another object is to provide such an instrument wherein, for example, in the preprogrammed mode the actuation of a sound effect key temporarily interrupts the playing of any preprogrammed song in process, inserts a respective special sound effect, and then resumes playing of the preprogrammed song.
A further object to provide such an instrument which at all times provides an immediate response to the actuation of a key, thereby maintaining the child's interest, avoiding his frustration, and proving the operability of the instrument.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such an instrument which utilizes only a single sound chip for producing sounds.
It is also an object to provide such an instrument which is economical to manufacture and of sturdy, rugged construction.